Order of Subject, Object and Verb
Word order · one world map for each value
WALS codes 1,376 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Subject-object-verb (SOV)”, covers 564 of them (41%); the least frequent, “Object-subject-verb (OSV)”, covers 4.
That value is most frequent in Eurasia (66% of the 295 languages coded there) and least frequent in Africa (17% of 363).
All 68 Trans-New Guinea languages coded have “Subject-object-verb (SOV)”.
Eastern Sudanic is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 13 of 36.
Subject-object-verb (SOV)564 languages · 41%
Subject-verb-object (SVO)488 languages · 35%
Verb-subject-object (VSO)95 languages · 7%
Verb-object-subject (VOS)25 languages · 2%
Object-verb-subject (OVS)11 languages · 1%
Object-subject-verb (OSV)4 languages · under 1%
Lacking a dominant word order189 languages · 14%
One map per value; each dot is a language WALS codes with that value.
By macro-area
| Value | Africa | Eurasia | Papunesia | Australia | North America | South America |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject-object-verb (SOV) | 62 | 195 | 145 | 34 | 61 | 67 |
| Subject-verb-object (SVO) | 244 | 76 | 115 | 13 | 16 | 24 |
| Verb-subject-object (VSO) | 22 | 6 | 26 | 0 | 36 | 5 |
| Verb-object-subject (VOS) | 1 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 8 | 4 |
| Object-verb-subject (OVS) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
| Object-subject-verb (OSV) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Lacking a dominant word order | 32 | 17 | 21 | 43 | 55 | 21 |
| All values | 363 | 295 | 318 | 95 | 176 | 129 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niger-Congo | 187 | Subject-verb-object (SVO) | 93% |
| Austronesian | 168 | Subject-verb-object (SVO) | 58% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 89 | Subject-object-verb (SOV) | 91% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 69 | Subject-verb-object (SVO) | 48% |
| Indo-European | 69 | Subject-object-verb (SOV) | 43% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 68 | Subject-object-verb (SOV) | 100% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 49 | Subject-object-verb (SOV) | 45% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 36 | Verb-subject-object (VSO) | 36% |
| Altaic | 28 | Subject-object-verb (SOV) | 100% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 28 | Subject-object-verb (SOV) | 54% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 24 | Subject-verb-object (SVO) | 67% |
| Central Sudanic | 23 | Subject-verb-object (SVO) | 65% |
| Oto-Manguean | 20 | Verb-subject-object (VSO) | 75% |
| Arawakan | 15 | Subject-verb-object (SVO) | 53% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Subject-object-verb (SOV): Turkish, Japanese, Georgian, Lezgian, Amele, Basque
- Subject-verb-object (SVO): English, French, Russian, Finnish, Spanish, Indonesian
- Verb-subject-object (VSO): Tagalog, Maori, Chamorro, Krongo, Jakaltek, Rapanui
- Verb-object-subject (VOS): Malagasy, Tukang Besi, Wari', Zoque (Copainalá), Otomí (Mezquital), Chinantec (Lealao)
- Object-verb-subject (OVS): Hixkaryana, Mangarrayi, Ungarinjin, Selknam, Tuvaluan, Cubeo
- Lacking a dominant word order: Hungarian, German, Greek (Modern), Chukchi, Fijian, Kayardild